Jarmusch’s Boring Film Wins Venice 2025’s Golden Lion Top Prize
by Alex Billington
September 6, 2025
Source: Biennale
At the end of it all, we finally have our winners. The 82nd Venice Film Festival wrapped up this weekend on the sunny Lido island in Venice, and awards were handed out at a fancy awards show in the Sala Grande. The top prize at Venice is a Golden Lion (in honor of the iconic lion that is the symbol of the city) and it’s one of the top prizes in cinema along with the Palme d’Or from Cannes (which was given to Jafar Panahi in May). This year’s winner is a film titled Father Mother Sister Brother, the latest feature from American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, back after a six year hiatus without making much. Alas it will go down in cinema history as one of the worst film festival prizes ever. Barely anyone liked this film, except for a handful of critics. No one think it deserves any awards. And somehow it won over some of the most incredible, awards-worthy films of the year: No Other Choice, Silent Friend, A House of Dynamite, The Testament of Ann Lee. What was the jury up to? Why this one? The ultimate nothing, boring, unexciting film has won an award it doesn’t deserve. Ugh. Last year in Venice, Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Next Door won over The Brutalist – another strange pick. The prize for Best Director was given out to Benny Safdie (another unexpected choice) along with a number of other very weird picks from the jury. View the full list of #Venezia82 winners below.
Main Venice Awards
The jury chaired by filmmaker Alexander Payne and also including Stéphane Brizé, Maura Delpero, Cristian Mungiu, Mohammad Rasoulof, Fernanda Torres, and Zhao Tao, after watching all 21 films, has awarded:
Golden Lion for Best Film:
Father Mother Sister Brother by Jim Jarmusch
Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize:
The Voice of Hind Rajab by Kaouther Ben Hania
Silver Lion Award for Best Director:
Benny Safdie for the film The Smashing Machine
Coppa Volpi for Best Actress:
Xin Zhilei in the film Sun Rises on Us All (Ri Gua Zhong Tian) by Shangjun Cai
Coppa Volpi for Best Actor:
Toni Servillo in the film Grace (La Grazia) by Paolo Sorrentino
Award for Best Screenplay:
Valérie Donzelli for At Work (À pied d’oeuvre) also by Valérie Donzelli
Special Jury Prize:
Below the Clouds (Sotto le Nuvole) by Gianfranco Rosi
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress:
Luna Wedler in the film Silent Friend by Ildikó Enyedi
“Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film:
Short Summer by Nastia Korkia
Armani Beauty Audience Award:
Calle Málaga by Maryam Touzani
Orizzonti Section Awards
The Orizzonti Jury, chaired by filmmaker Julia Ducournau, also including Yuri Ancarani, Fernando Enrique Juan Lima, Shannon Murphy, and RaMell Ross, after watching 19 feature films in competition, awarded:
Orizzonti Award for Best Film:
On the Road (En el Camino) by David Pablos
Orizzonti Award for Best Director:
Anuparna Roy for the film Songs of Forgotten Trees
Special Orizzonti Jury Prize:
Lost Land (Harà Watan) by Akio Fujimoto
Orizzonti Award for Best Actress:
Benedetta Porcaroli in Kidnapping of Arabella (Il rapimento di Arabella) by Carolina Cavalli
Orizzonti Award for Best Actor:
Giacomo Covi in the film A Year of School (Un anno di scuola) by LauraSamani
Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay:
Ana Cristina Barragán for The Ivy (Hiedra) also by Ana Cristina Barragán
That’s all for now. For the full list of awards (including a few more), head to labiennale.org. Congratulations to all of the winners this year. Though now it’s time to rant: this is terrible. Really, truly – an exceptionally frustrating, entirely nonsensical Golden Lion pick. WHY?! There is NO interesting or unique or innovative or clever filmmaking in Jarmusch’s film at all. It is infuriating to award this film the top prize at the Venice Film Festival over any number of other exceptional films that actually have some vibrant, vivid, masterful filmmaking within them: No Other Choice, Silent Friend, A House of Dynamite, The Testament of Ann Lee. I also did not want The Voice of Hind Rajab to win for political reasons. Important story & important film, but the filmmaking is not that interesting or exciting either. But at least that would’ve been better than this one. The rest of the awards also don’t make sense. Benny Safdie for Best Director? Huh!? Nothing for Park Chan-wook? One tiny award for Silent Friend which is a masterpiece? Jesse Plemons in Bugonia deserved to win for Best Actor. Amanda Seyfried in Ann Lee deserved to win for Best Actress. I’m so upset by this. But this is just my opinion and it’s time to move on. I’d rather get back to focusing on my favorites – the films that really do deserve our attention. As always, try to catch any of these films in the theater when they open. Hopefully they’ll be at another fest near you or releasing soon. For more of my Venice 2025 posts, click here.
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